Bon Appétit announced last week that it had implemented the most sweeping anti-cruelty policy in the food service industry. By 2015, all of the pork the company buys will come from farmers who do not confine their sows in two-by-seven-foot gestation crates. Similarly, all of its “liquid” eggs that come to its kitchens pre-cracked and in containers will be from cage-free hens, as its in-shell eggs do now. Veal from crated calves will disappear from Bon Appétit menus, as will the small amount of foie gras it serves.

A few years ago, I witnessed the domino effect of Bauccio’s big fork in the Florida tomato industry. Because of heinous labor abuses in the fields, Bon Appétit told the state’s growers that it would simply stop buying Florida tomatoes until it could find a producer whose labor practices were transparently fair.

Finally, not wanting to be shut out, virtually every significant grower came aboard. An entire industry was transformed.